The Topline In a perfect world functioning democracy, we wouldn’t rely on the tech platforms to regulate elected officials and campaigns on social media. We’d have laws and regulations in place about hate speech, harassment, and harm that the tech platforms would have to follow. We’d have politicians who respected democratic norms and didn’t use social media to incite violence, post racist and misogynist memes and run ads that spread disinformation. On the rare occasion when candidates and elected officials ignored these norms there would be regulations in place to deal with it.